Daniel E White

Considering metropolitan and colonial cultural production as a “unitary field of analysis,” this book shows how tensions in the 1830s between utilitarian and Romantic perspectives on steam power marked meaningful divisions within the pervasive liberal imperialism of the period and generated divergent speculative fantasies, set in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, about the future of Indian nationalism. Poetry and fiction in Britain and Bengal engage with a Romantic strain of thought and sentiment according to which steam technology represents an anti-utilitarian humanization of nature. Within and against that frame and in uneven and different ways, writers in British India map a constellation of liberal values onto their hopes and fears concerning a future powered by steam.

Central to any reappraisal of Southey’s mid to late career, is 'Roderick'. This best-selling epic romance has not been republished since 1838 and is contextualised here within Southey’s wider oeuvre. The four-volume edition also benefits from a general introduction, volume introductions, textual variants, endnotes and a consolidated index.

Central to any reappraisal of Southey’s mid to late career, is 'Roderick'. This best-selling epic romance has not been republished since 1838 and is contextualised here within Southey’s wider oeuvre. The four-volume edition also benefits from a general introduction, volume introductions, textual variants, endnotes and a consolidated index.

Central to any reappraisal of Southey’s mid to late career, is 'Roderick'. This best-selling epic romance has not been republished since 1838 and is contextualised here within Southey’s wider oeuvre. The four-volume edition also benefits from a general introduction, volume introductions, textual variants, endnotes and a consolidated index.

Central to any reappraisal of Southey’s mid to late career, is 'Roderick'. This best-selling epic romance has not been republished since 1838 and is contextualised here within Southey’s wider oeuvre. The four-volume edition also benefits from a general introduction, volume introductions, textual variants, endnotes and a consolidated index.

Central to any reappraisal of Southey’s mid to late career, is 'Roderick'. This best-selling epic romance has not been republished since 1838 and is contextualised here within Southey’s wider oeuvre. The four-volume edition also benefits from a general introduction, volume introductions, textual variants, endnotes and a consolidated index.

Religious diversity and ferment characterize the period that gave rise to Romanticism in England. It is generally known that many individuals who contributed to the new literatures of the late eighteenth century came from Dissenting backgrounds, but we nonetheless often underestimate the full significance of nonconformist beliefs and practices during this period. Daniel White provides a clear and useful introduction to Dissenting communities, focusing on Anna Barbauld and her familial network of heterodox 'liberal' Dissenters whose religious, literary, educational, political, and economic activities shaped the public culture of early Romanticism in England. He goes on to analyze the roles of nonconformity within the lives and writings of William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey, offering a Dissenting genealogy of the Romantic movement.

For much of British history, kings and queens have taken oaths on the Bible as they were coronated. Symbolically perhaps, President George Washington swore on an open Bible, establishing a new American tradition. For Washington, the Bible was opened at random, and many of his successors followed suit. Others have chosen specific verses or books of the Bible. The reasons for a particular choice are as varied as the men who have occupied the office. interestingly enough, more than twice as many have chosen Old Testament verses as New Testament ones, and the Psalms have been used more than any other book. Perhaps the position of the Psalms at the centre of many Bibles explains the choice; triumphant Presidents choosing joyful texts is another explanation. Every American president from Washington through Clinton is discussed.